Fresh meat to beef jerky

Hi!
My name is Josh, I am from Canada, 23, student, and recently have had a great fascination with poker. My goal in being here is to learn a lot more about the game, and make some money.

Im second in on the left.

I am currently in School at the University of Saskatchewan for Geophysics. If I can make some decent cash doing this I will be able to this instead of getting a part time job.

The Problem!
My current situation is: do I want to start with BSS? Or start out with the MSS, and learn then slowly switch to BSS. Also, which is going to be the best for making money? I think it would be much easier to learn the charts and play 20 tables with MSS, while with BSS there is a lot more thinking involved, and I would most likely not be able to play with 20 tables, maybe half of that. So, from a making money standpoint MSS might be the way to go because of the shear amount of volume I can do, while BSS will be for my own enjoyment. We will have to see with experience though. Any input on this would be greatly appreciated!

Starting Quiz
I did the starting quiz for doing the BSS, and it all seemed to be simple enough until I read the article on the post flop. My world got turned upside down, the ideas were very tough to call, and the only reason I passed was due to my own judgement, or guessing haha. I did get thought It though and got starting capital to the Poker 770, however I wanted to play pokerstars and so i got a prepaid creditcard and put 50 on my account. Getting excited

Learning
The BSS was pretty confusing to me, and I am the type of person that needs to have a decent grasp on what is going on to make decisions, so I looked into SSS and MSS. With pokerstars I can't bring the amount of chips required for SSS. So, I looked at MSS and it seemed like it was right up my alley, it had some info on post flop and tells me what to do, I figured it would help me learn a bit more about the confusion I have with post flop. After asking around and googling a bit, MSS seems like a great place to start.

First tables
I started out with 2 slow tables. Lots of folding, first set of card I had gotten was pocket kings. Was re-raised and was told to go all in by the sheet. The villan called with like 53o, and pulled a full house off the flop. Rough start.
All in all after some time I am up from 50 to 65.

Continuing learning
Watching a LOT of videos on BSS, MSS, and SnG's. Learning a lot, but I think it is time for me to just start playing more poker. I think I can have all the theory in the world, but I need to appy it, so my goal for the next bit is to just play some MSS, and try to grow my capital, as well as memorizing the tables a bit better. Right now I think the way to go is capital.

Goals
-Get MSS to be more of a muscle memory as I still have to look a lot of things up.
-Learn more about BSS, and my post flop game.
-Grow my capital
-Don't make mistakes.
-Get some private coaching, later on, to avoid bad habits.

I am going to play for the majority of today, and will, hopefully, learn a lot and will post some interesting hands in my blog.

So, play for a few hours today, and lost a tough hand, according to the chart, was suppose to go all in with pocket kings, and the other man had pocket aces. Oh well, after that I stole some blinds, and won some small pots. Only got over 2.50 on one of the 3 tables. All and all I am down about $3. I ended up getting a bit frustrated and took a break. the GW2 beta weekend is on right now, so I felt like that is a good distraction. Does anyone have any advice? I am guessing this stuff happens. I will play some more later today and try to get back up to the start. I really don't like stopping when I am below, but I don't want to tilt either. Discipline is key, I find once I bet and go on a flop that after the call on the continuation bet folding is hard since so much money was invested. Oh well, that is life.

Good luck learning MSS, we've got a couple of other bloggers who play MSS, maybe you should have a look around and get talking to them and exchange advice on the gamestyle.

I've always been a BSS man myself, I enjoy the interaction and thinking more, while I can surely see the appeal of MSS as being less exploitable inherently.

Looking forward to read about your progress!

Regards,
Richard

Thanks! I defiantly have been looking around and watched some good videos on it.! I do plan to switch to BSS in a bit here, but since I switched poker rooms I am going to keep doing MSS so I can unlock my capital and grow it.

Moving on I started to play for some alright time. I have some trouble with pokerstars. So I started over again on Poker770. Last night proved well, I had some hard losses at the end, and blame tilting from getting to cocky, or hitting some bad calls. Here is a graph:
This was played on NL4 on Poker770. I ended up only winning $2.27, but as you can tell had some huge losses, which I think, was mostly my fault and I need to improve on.
I had 13.36bb/100 after those losses.

I have posted so many hands in there I am going to take a break until I get the full feedback since I think they might be feeding from the same problem.

I think I am just trying to stick to the board to much. In the second hand going all in on an over pair seems kind of stupid. Regardless when I lost half my profits in 2 hands I had realized I was tilting, and it was time to quit while I was still ahead.

Goals for this week
-Finish Lesson 2 of the BSS beginners course.
-Learn more about equity, and get better at doing the pot odds calculations in my head. As this I think is a major leak.
-Play more! 500 hands really isn't that much.
-Get some more capital.
-LEARN LEARN LEARN.

I do have a tendency to take in to much at once. I think a slow steady rate of learning is the way to go on this. So, I am going to re watch some videos, and I think I am really going to get some private coaching. After all, this is real money, and I want to be as solid as possible.

I can understand your hesitation for thinking whether is better to go off with MSS or BSS, I really can, I asked my self the same question several times.. But I see it exactly the same as you said in the first post, I like the MSS's ability to learn (somewhat) quick and to play a lot..
And as fruktpuff said, the MSS is harder to be exploitable inherently.

But my honest advice would be to just stick to MSS.. There is no point in switching to numerious strategies, just stick with one, and master it.. (This will also improve your discipline!) Play like 20k hands with it, if everything has gone good, you'll have your starting capital even bigger and then can try BSS.. If something goes wrong with BSS later on, in the back of your head you know you always have this 'MSS' strategy that you're so good at, that you can basically put X number of hours with it and produce cash off it.. See where I'm going? Isn't it a good feeling to have? I strive for it.

Last two hands were standard and correctly played based on charts. QQ hand I wouldn't even give a second look, basically QQ is strong enough to almost always go all-in preflop if villain wants to..

AK on the other hand, you can fold it sometimes in 3bet/4bet battle, but you really need the aid of HUD and villain's 3bet/fold-to-3bet % to help you make that decision.. Generally, on NL4 I think it's okay to be willing to go all-in with AK..

The video is hilarious, but don't be like that, lol!
That some sick psycho!
Really, just chill out, you did nothing wrong, and those things happen. That's the bad side of the poker, but if you can be disciplined enough and be willing to accept that you're playing for longterm (ie 20-35k+ hands) you'll reap the benefits of the poker and those are nice money and freedom time-wise..

OH, and I don't want to be the one saying learning is bad, but I noticed in the couple of posts you said you're learning BSS lesson 2 and your plan is to

Learn more about BSS, and my post flop game.

Well just one thing, the BSS is played with 100bb's (duh, obviously?
) so the majority of your decisions postflop are going to be differently played than with 40bb's (MSS strategy).. So I don't know how good is to mix those up together, I think you'll only confuse yourself more, but go for it if you feel like it.

As well as this one
I have had such back luck with going all in on AK hands.
IPoker, $0.02/$0.04 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 8 PlayersPoker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Well, I made the decision to switch to BBS, and well I will just let the video speak for itself:

Yeah, pretty bad. Im not even going to post the graphs.
I spent a lot of time with the videos on the beginners course, but can;t pull myself out of the red. I decided to get some private coaching, and that have helped a bit, well I am not completely out of the red: I am less in it. I basically just followed the charts with MSS, and now the training wheels are off I completely have to change my train of thought. The coaching has really helped with that, as I am a werido when it comes to thinking, so I simply need some sort of attitude adjustment I guess. This takes perseveriance, and am not losing my starting captial all that quickly, so hopefully I will be at a point where I can crush NL2. The last night I was up all night editing my essay, so I am rather tired now and I am sure the session I did today was not on the A game. Something that is really confusing me, is I am hearing something from my coach, but hearing a differant peice of advice from hand posting. It just makes me a little confused. I am just playing few tables and trying to think of two things: Can I make worse hands call? Can I make better hands fold? I hope in time I can start moving on up, and growing my capital. I put $50 into my WPT account, but refuse to touch it until I am winnging money on average with my starting capital. I noticed I don't see showdown that much, but then I tried to force it, and lost more money haha. Perhaps I need to find the balance between a hand with showndown value, and something without it. Generally I hit top pair, and try to suck all the value out of it perhaps I don't want something like toppair to even see showdown? I am also having trouble with fish, I have a hard time putting ranges on them, and being confident in my hand beating them.

Anyone with any advice what so ever is much apprecated. I am eating, sleeping, and breathing poker, but like with anything it takes devotion and time.

Goals
-Play 2-3 hours a day.
-Get a few lessons from the beginners course done.
-Really try and focus on ranges, and what it is that they have.
-Get out of the red!!

Hi, CHCH,
Cool blog.
I play MSS also.
Don't ever play TIRED...or drunk,angry,when you should be doing something else, etc etc.
When i'm tired I play bad so I don't play at those times anymore.
MSS does work.
Be cautious of players(regs) that see thru your MSS game
I tag them as " Ex MSS".Exploiters of MSS players.
With hands against these players you need position and the top of your range.
Peace.
Simon

I was having a rough time with BSS, and then a hit a rough car accident, and my thinking (Math especially) took a pretty big hit for a few months. But, like all things I had to get back into the saddle. Poker is a challenge, and I like it. It isn't something I can just quit. So Here we go!
Since school starts tomorrow my list of goals is going to to be short:
-Not worry about losing for now (Tilts me).
-Finish the beginners course.
-Play 2-3 hours a day.

Once the beginners course is done I will get some private coaching, and try to learn lots.

Why am I going to BSS, and not MSS where I was more competitive? BSS is harder, and I am more of a challenge. The thinking appeals to me. I do eventually want to play SH, and not FR because it looks like a huge riot.

I found SnGs and I am pretty hooked. Been busy with school, so I haven't been playing as much as I want to, but here is how I have gone so far:
[URL=http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p112/Chow_album/?action=view&current=Results~40T_zps6f8f3647.png][/URL]

I forgot to include it on there, but I am actually below EV. So, I can expect to spring back up at some point I hope. These seem to be going a lot better than BSS did. I had a really hard time getting that. I am really wanting to keep at this and make some good profit. I am pretty sure I play a bit to tight, as well have some weak postflop game, probly as a result of playing to tight. So, to combat this I found a wonderful coach, and am looking forward to showing him my hands and hopefully can get some leaks busted, as I think my steals, and my postflop need a lot of work
.

On the other side, I am back in school, and it is getting to be pretty tough. My head seems to be much better as I can keep up in math. If anyone has taken a Partial Differental Equations course I am sure they know what's up. After doing my first assignment (spread out over about a week, with about 12 hours worth of work) I feel a bit like this:

I also have been watching a bunch of lessthanthree and faarcyde videos. Those have been helpful, as seeing someone play postflop is very useful.

So my Goals:
Unlock my deposit bonus on PP (should get me another 1/3rd of my way to the next BI level.)
Fix dem leaks.
Continue getting coaching.
Play as much hands as I can.
LEARN LEARN LEARN.
Not Fail school.

Had my second coaching session with Tim! Went well, was a sweat session, and I guess my game is better than I thought. I played for a bit after, and had a run of bad luck, but I made it all back! So while I only have 100T is shows that I am not completely useless haha. Hopefully I am playing profitably! Here is my new graph!

I am also thinking of putting some cash into my BR so I can move up to the $3 tables. With school I cannot play as much as I would like. Still making some weird mistakes, but I feel like I am playing profitably.

This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by Chowchow12: 26.09.2012 03:22.

CHEAA BUDDAH

Was running really good. Enjoying it while it lasts.

As a celebratory video for myself (Since I doubt anymore reads this boring blog anyway)

Now that I posted this I am pretty sure I karma will kick my ass down the stairs, but oh well need to enjoy it while it lasts! But at the same time this isn't the time to get cocky. I need to work hard to improve my game. (Still not a big fan of my postflop.)

Goals:
Review, review, review. I am really not doing enough of that!
Re-read the postflop articals.
Watch some more videos
Learn as much as I can from my next private coaching session.

I also had a bit of a talk with my coach, and it may be better to deposit the next amount of money ($75) to hit my next BR, since the rake is less % wise, and since with school I am not able to play nearly as many tournaments as I would like to. This will increase my intake (assuming I don't get crushed on the $3 tables.) and I will be able to get stratagy points, and unlock some of my deposit bonues fast since it ends in 3 weeks and I might as well get as much of it as I can. Anyone want to weigh in on this? Either way I am pretty excited about today, and moving up to the next BR. Once I get a holiday I am going to be playing poker like a fiend trying to increase my BR.

Well today was about what I expected. I haven't deposited to move up to the $3, but I did decide to try a $3 6max turbo, and got second. It was pretty cool! The players at that table did seem less spewy, anyway I played some tournaments before going to bed and am down some $$. After my sick upswing it seemed pretty likely- had some bad beats, but wasn;t sure if I was playing to tight out of a couple losses. So Back to ICM trainer for a bit, to make sure I am close, or fix the issues. Tommorow I am going to spend a few hours reviewing sessions, and check out my stuff. My postflop still needs some work I think. With hands like AK, and I wiff I tend to really not know what to do.

Here is my graph:

Anyway after looking at my graph I am hoping I am playing +EV. All I can do is keep working on my game. Still really liking poker, and motivated to keep playing. One thing I seem to find is that there is a lot more swing in this than I expected. I thought it would be a more consistent climb. Again, still really liking it though. I am hoping to get some more play in this weekend, and grind out some more games. The uncertainty, I feel, really seems to set in on downswings, which actually might be a good motivation to keep reviewing my game. Can't nit up, and can't tilt out. My average ROI is still in 30% for all table types (At the time I play there aren't many people on so I played whatever table I can get. During the weekend I will play during the peek, so maybe get some fish, and get some more volume.

Well on a down swing, and really wasn't playing well today. Been opening up my ranges, and as of yesterday it was going really well, but today not so great. I am really unsure of my postflop game, and really causing some tough situations, and really not sure of my post flop game. Doubt is a dangerous thing. I am stopping for tonight as I think I am tilted and not playing 100% Just costing me some $$$. Got another lesson on Friday so hopefully that can help sort some things out, and get some of my confidence back. I am going to watch some videos and then go to bed. Here is my graph from the last bit, any wise words would be great! My Motivation has taken a pretty hard hit.

I don't know if it was play or variance. It's probly both to be completely honest, but down about 20BI in 60 or so tournaments. It's a pretty steep fall. I have no idea anymore, and I am honestly questioning if I want to continue playing. School is taking a big part of my day, and I haven't been getting to the gym as much, and I am really thinking that is about to trump this, as the up and downs are killing me, and my mood hasn;t been the best the past week. I am going to think on this, but I really don't know if it is worth it for me. Props to the guys who keep going.